Quick Recovery

One of the purposes of TheyAreMissing is to inform parents of what to do in case a child becomes lost or goes missing and how to prepare for that unfortunate time. 10 minutes of preparation twice a year may improve recovery time dramatically, and give law enforcement and security personnel added recovery.

This pamphlet is made up of 4 sections
Section 1 - React sooner not later.
Section 2 - Be Accurate, Pictures Make it Better Yet.
Section 3 - Keep the information With You
Section 4 - Simple ID Card

React sooner not Later

It has been reported that professional abductors ( Some are referred to as "Kidnap by Order"), take less than 3 minutes to remove a child from a store to a waiting car. According to other statistics most abductions take less than 10 minutes from obtaining the child to having them removed to an abductors secure location. See the Time Distance Map Below for timing impact.

Quick response allows stores to enact their policies, Many stores when alerted to a missing child will close the doors and not let anyone leave until the child is found or the person is cleared by security. The longer you wait to report your child missing the more time an abductor has to leave the building and remove the child to a different location.
 

Be Accurate, Pictures Make it Better Yet.

One of the biggest aids to the police and security personnel is accurate information that is available immediately. Pictures make quick recovery easier yet. If the information given to security or police is inaccurate they may see your child and not recognize that he or she is the child they have been alerted to.

Have you ever heard on the radio or television something to the effect : Be on the lookout for a Caucasian male 5 ft 10 to 6 feet tall, blue or brown eyes and shoulder length hair. This information though accurate, describes me, my brother, the guy who runs the corner store, three cousins and my next door neighbor, making accurate identification difficult to impossible.

I have been told by a number of people they don't need the information written down because they could never forget their child's height, weight, hair color or eye color. However in March 2002 we did a study that showed parent accuracy to average less than 80%. Some parents did not even get eye color and hair color right. To a trained professional 20% error is enough error that they are looking for a different person. For more detail see the booklet "The Survey" or go to http://TheyAreMissing.org/survey.htm

Keep The Information With You

If you have a picture of your child with you it can be distributed to security, police and press immediately. Having a current picture with you can save hours of effective reaction time for the police and press. Every minute saved improves the odd of finding the child.

It doesn't help if your spouse has the picture if they are not present. A story comes to mind; a child went missing at a movie theater. The parents happily tell the police that 6 weeks earlier they filled out a child identification kit, however the mood changes quickly as they realize the kit is safely stored in a safe deposit box at their bank, and the kit won't be available until opening time Monday a full 60 hours later.

Even if the information kit is stored in a vehicle that still gives the abductor 10 minutes more to get away or conceal his crime.

Simple ID card

Ideally there are child identification kits which have the child's picture, name, height, weight, birth date, DNA sample and finger prints. These are often bulky (especially if you have more than 1 child) and hard to carry if you can keep these with you this is ideal. However if it is not possible to carry an ID kit a picture of the child with current information (height, weight, eye and hair color) kept in a wallet or purse by each guardian, can be a great help in quick recovery.

One alternative to the Child Identification Kits is the simple ID card printed below, this card does not require any special equipment or knowledge to create, and was designed to use a wallet sized photo from standard school pictures. Templates for this card and a version designed for digital photographs are available at http://TheyAreMissing.org there is no charge for these templates. Printed versions of these cards are available also (Printing, Shipping and handling charges may apply).